From advising on mergers and acquisitions transactions to conducting in-depth reviews of clients’ compliance programmes, disputes practitioners innately develop strong insights into what could be problematic on a deal and the difficulties those problems will ultimately cause with the authorities.

Therefore, it is this prevention-that-is-better-than-cure basis that places his lawyers on matters across many non-contentious areas for the firm’s clients, says Satindar Dogra, a partner and head of Linklaters’ London dispute resolution practice. “We present a joint team at the outset of a transaction,” he explains.

A German court has ruled that the country’s participation in the Unified Patent Court is unconstitutional. Following the UK’s withdrawal from the scheme, it leaves the future of the UPC in a precarious position.